


Submerse

by Accidentallytechohazardous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Bathtubs, Human/Troll Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 19:52:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3146582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accidentallytechohazardous/pseuds/Accidentallytechohazardous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave gets a bathtub in his apartment. It is soon acquisition for troll purposes, and also nap time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Submerse

**Author's Note:**

> I'm clearing out my tumblr and had it suggested to me that I post some of my old Homestuck fanfics on Ao3. This was written about three years ago. Jesus.

Your new apartment has a bathtub.  


You don’t really care. You prefer showers, but you do enjoy the luxurious space that having a bigger bathroom offers. You aren’t living with Bro anymore, although both he and Dirk have offered, so now you can wake up to a glorious experience of a ridiculously hot jet of water blasting you in the face without having any curious-looking puppets leering at you.  


But your new apartment has a bathtub, and sometimes when its really hot and Gamzee comes over he likes to submerge himself in it.  


Turns out, the trolls are outrageously vulnerable to climate change compared to humans, particularly the indigo-blooded alien who apparently has shit temperature tolerance. In the winter, albeit your arguably mild Texan ones, he sees no problem in only wearing t-shirts and boxers in the middle of December. But it seems like half of his summer is spent curled up underneath whatever sparse shade he can get a hold of. At the risk of sounding like Karkat when he talks about his romance novels, its pitiable. But it's also pitiful.  


And now, in the morning after, he seems to have thought it was perfect boykismatefriendmesis etiquette to fill up your bathtub with freezing cold water and just hang out in it. The water has overflowed and is pooling on your linoleum and you’re a bit pissed off that you can’t take your hot shower now.  


And damn the troll can hold his breath for a long time because you stand in the bathroom watching him for like ten minutes before you wonder if maybe he’s not conscious, maybe he’s dead. Like he fell asleep and drowned and you should call the paramedics or perform CPR or something. You want to poke him, but he might just burst out like a sea monster and take your head off for disturbing his special Gamzee Aquatic Alone Time.  


So what ends up happening is that you bring in a chair and you sit, still unshowered, unshaven and unfed, and watch the troll soak in your bathtub for almost an hour.  
After the one-hour mark, you hear the water shift. You see Gamzee’s long horns poke out over the bathtub’s rim, water droplets slipping down their spiraled curve. The top half of his face peers over the rim now, and his indigo-eyes are kind of dazed and sleepy. It's a startling change from the yellow pinpricks of rage and irritation you're used to being greeted by. ‘Yep. Just took a quick powernap in your bathtub. Problem?’  


“Comfortable?” You ask, voice dripping in sarcasm,  


“Mmmmmhmmmm.” He answers in one drawn-out hum, wearing that goofy smile you only ever really catch when he's ether fucked up or way, way out of it. He leans over, elbows dipping off the rim and chin resting on the outside of his folded hands. His hair is still wet and thick and stringy like a shaggy dog's, covering half of his face and dripping even more water onto your bathtub floor. You realize that the half of his face that isn’t covered in hair is completely without his facepaint, which strikes you something odd because he usually puts so much effort into wearing that white shit every minute of every day.  


Clean and still wet, you notice how pale his face is- probably the result of never getting a lick of sun without that clown make-up. His features are surprisingly fine. Delicate, even, to be honest, even if still undoubtedly masculine. At least, they are when untouched by the haggard sort of look he gets when he's incoherent. You can’t really describe how quirky it is that someone who’s kind of sort of ‘pretty’ has tried to strangle you on more than one occasion. You might just need to 'accidentally' misplace that face paint for rumpus assholes in the future to further analyze this property.  


“So are you getting out any time soon, or should we prepare to release you into your natural habitat? 'Cuz I’m not gonna lie, but ‘Free Willy’ would have been, like, a hundred times better if the whale was an alien. Kid standing there on those rocks for the poster shot, big, grey, lanky doucheface suspended overhead for all cinematic and cultural history. Then a candy-corn horn takes the kid's head right off.”  


Gamzee makes an attempt to groan, “Shuddup-“ But is cut off by the towel you threw at his head, hooking on his horn and draping over his cranium.  


You exit the bathroom before he can throw something back and go to make coffee. You hear Gamzee slip a little and curse, as is predicable discourse, but he escapes the bathroom unharmed, still dripping with the towel you threw wrapped around his waist.  


“Looking good, bro.” You inform him, not hiding your interest in the curve of his hipbones underneath the towel as you put a second cup of coffee on the counter.  
He smirks, and it's halfway to a scowl, “That ain’t quite how you were fucking articulating it last night, _bro._ ” Which is fair. He takes a gulp of the coffee without thinking and grimaces like a child at the overload of sugar you mixed in.  


“Don’t be such a baby.” You scold, “You’re in the fucking South and if you can’t handle ten tons of sugar in every beverage you will ever drink forever then just get back to alien Russia or wherever you lived on that shitstorm planet of your-“  


The end of your rant is muffled by the now damp towel that just made contact with your face.  


You’re new apartment has a bathtub.  


Which can coincidentally be used for a variety of things.


End file.
